A middleweight title rematch between Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman is being targeted for UFC 199 in what’s likely to be the headliner for the show in June.
Dana White broke the news yesterday during an interview with Katie Nolan on Garbage Time, though an exact date and location wasn’t given for the event.
Rockhold claimed the title from Weidman in the co-main event of the blockbuster UFC 194 event in December of last year, almost stopping him with ground and pound in the third round before TKO’ing him with more of the same in the fourth.
The new champion had been on a four-fight winning streak prior to his title fight, taking out the likes of Tim Boetsch, Michael Bisping and Lyoto Machida, while Weidman had an unblemished 13-0 record, having defeated Anderson Silva to claim the strap and going on to make three successful defenses against Silva, Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort.
Despite enjoying a definitive victory in their first meeting Rockhold had indicated that he was willing to rematch Weidman, but he had gone on record as saying there was one thing he was hoping to avoid.
“I don’t want to be on UFC 199, I’ll tell you that,” Rockhold told MMAjunkie back in early January. “The hype for 200 will be so big it will take away from 199. Who wants to be on 199? I want to be on 198 or 200. That would be cool, even if I’m not main eventing.”
Unfortunately for him the UFC have turned a deaf ear to his plea and that’s exactly where he’s ended up.
